Day Two - Over 24 Hours of Paint Time to Prep for the Opening | Endless Love Crew - Robots Will Kill - NoLA Rising

By the time I got into the space on Thursday, I had just over 24 hours to finish making the space mine. So I did what any decently insane artist would do...put on music and started tuning out people, eating only when food happened to show up, and avoided meaningful banter. In the end, the show was ready with me finishing the walls about an hour before the doors opened...

Endless Love Crew

Robots Will Kill



Click on THIS LINK to see the photos on FLickr as they are uploaded

First Night in NYC Preparing for the NoLA Rising Festival | Photos by Nick Gaswirth

11/19/08

Howdy Folks!

It's been awhile since there's been an update, but as you can imagine, I've needed a little decompression time. I've spent that time organizing over 800 photos, shipping artwork, making phone calls and all the usual post-show craziness. So, to update everyone who would have liked to come up to New York for the NoLA Rising Festival, I'm going to do an event by event post.

Upon landing in New York, I took a taxi direct to IRT where the event was to be held by Slightly Askew for NoLA Rising. Five models awaited my arrival to be painted. I was going with the New Orleans cemetery theme/with Dia de La Muertos faces (as a tribute to our friend Mardi Claw). Everything was going smoothly except that the paint wasn't drying in a manner I was accustomed to. Considering it might be a difference of humidity, I painted on. However, much to our dismay after the photo shoot, Christin came in slightly panicky {approximately 2 a.m.} and announced, "the paint is NOT coming off!"

At that point, I stopped trusting that the base coat had been a latex primer, looked across the room and saw that was indeed not. INDEED not. As I read the words "High Epoxy Medium Enamel", I knew the models were screwed. A few days later, all the paint was off with minimal rashes and I learned a valuable lesson. Had I double checked what paint I had requested, all would be well. Unfortunately the hardware store where the paint was bought decided to rip off the girl who bought it seeing that she didn't know the difference of the paints.

The following photos were taken for NoLA Rising archive purposes, but professional prints of the shoot can be found by photographer Nick Gaswirth. ::: To SEE the photos that Nick Selected, GO HERE









NoLA Rising NYC

CANO has an art-filled Thanksgiving weekend

CANO - Creative Alliance of New Orleans

Studio at Colton to host local arts-themed Thanksgiving weekend

WHAT:

The Studio at Colton School invites our New Orleans neighbors, visitors, families and friends to join us for a Thanksgiving weekend experience like none other filled with local arts and culture. Diverge from the beaten path of mainstream movies and malls in favor of a one of a kind post-Turkey Day weekend at the Studio at Colton School, where 100,000 square feet of work spaces, exhibitions, workshops and classrooms converted to screening rooms will be open all weekend from noon until 8:00 p.m.

A film-festival exclusively featuring the work of Colton resident filmmakers including Court 13, New Orleans Video Access Center, Film Charitable Network and 2 Cent Entertainment will run on both Saturday and Sunday from 2:00 until 5:00 p.m. in room 318. Stray from the traditional holiday weekend path of the high-budget blockbuster packed theater experience in favor of the local, independent film industry. (See below for a list of films to be shown.)

Fueled by bountiful Thanksgiving dinner and dessert local kids are sure to have energy to burn. They'll love any and all of the unique children's events at The Studio at Colton School this weekend including a special production of "Blues for Kids," with Clifford McPeak of Good Children Gallery and the exciting opportunity to see artists at work in classroom studio spaces throughout the school. NOLA Project and Alex Martinez Wallace will also offer the once in a lifetime Superhero Enterprise Workshop for kids who want channel their inner super hero through a rigorous imagination operation while developing confidence and teamwork skills.

Black Forest Fancies Laboratories will also present a unique puppetry theater experience featuring the drama of string-controlled creatures in "The Tragical Ballad of Black Bonnet," a story of romance between locally hand-crafted marionettes.

All events except the Superhero Enterprise Workshop, ($5.00 per child) are free.

WHEN and WHERE:
Saturday + Sunday November 29th + 30th, 2008

Studio at Colton School
2300 St. Claude Avenue
New Orleans, La. 70117
Building open from 12:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Thanksgiving Weekend Mini Film Festival
Saturday and Sunday from 2:00 – 5:00 p.m. in Room 318

Court 13 presents:
* Glory at Sea
* Death to the Tinman

*(Part of the set of Glory at Sea, a myth entrenched car that was once a boat, has been reconstructed and is on display in the gallery on the Spain Street side of the ground floor.)

NOVAC presents:
* A Loud Color
* Scenic Highway

Film Charitable Network presents:
* Talkin' Water

2 Cent Entertainment presents:
* New Orleans for Sale
* Operation Education
* Hip-Hop Mirrors

Blues for Kids with Clifford McPeak
Saturday from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Red Ball Room (ground floor, Mandeville St. side)

Superhero Enterprise Workshop
Sunday from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Red Ball Room (ground floor, Mandeville St. side)
*$5.00 per child (ages 5-12 recommended – younger and older welcome)

The Tragical Ballad of Black Bonnet: Puppetry Theater by Black Forest Fancies Laboratories
Sunday at 6:00 p.m.
Room 213

WHY:

The Studio at Colton School is designed to be a facility that will provide working and exhibition opportunities to artists and students in order to advance their career, education and marketing opportunities and thus contributing to the economic development of the creative sector of our community. One of this year's most exciting and important community projects, The Studio features 78 local artists, designers, arts organizations, performers, film makers, builders and culinary artists who have signed contracts to utilize free studio and exhibition space granted by CANO in the 100,000 square foot Studio at Colton school.

NoLA Rising NYC | Slightly Askew | Ad Nauseum

ReX of NoLA Rising arrives in New York next week for the NoLA Rising Festival. We don't have any trapeze artists lined up that I know of, but we have a full line-up of art lunacy. CHECK IT OUT HERE!

November 21 8pm Opening Event
This is the opening of the exhibit A Tag of Two Cities. Solo musicians James Subudhi, Lauren Pritchard (Spring Awakening) and the fabulous funk reggae band Suspicious Brown will share the stage with world renowned spoken word poets Eboni Hogan and Caitlin Meissner. Meet the artists, drink, view Michael Almereyda's new film, and make a shirt with fashion designer David Withrow and graphic artist Maranda Barskey.

November 22nd – 24 Hours of ART!

9-10:30am FREE! Yoga with Elizabeth Barnett. Come salute the opening of 24 hours of ART! with this free yoga class.

12 – 1:30pm Java Jazz. FREE! An event for all ages, come enjoy jazz, coffee, bakery, and explore the exhibit. Mike "Rex" Dingler of NoLA Rising will have wood, paint and supplies set up for you to make a piece of art for the people and students in New Orleans who are still trying to return to their homes after Katrina.

3pm – 5pm Screening of Wade in the Water. This documentary was made by students in the first school to open in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Produced and directed by Elizabeth Wood and Gabriel Nussbaum, the children of New Orleans' violent Central City neighborhood create riveting and remarkably honest portraits of a New Orleans that was a disaster long before Katrina, a New Orleans that adults are slow to discuss and that the media could never penetrate, and that the flood has exacerbated. In addition there will be four award winning short stories and poems written by students in the Recovery School District Public Schools in New Orleans performed by NY artists and viewed by live webcam by the students in New Orleans. This project was commissioned by the Ogden Museum of Southern Folk Art in New Orleans, LA. $5 proceeds from this event go towards a literary publication of the student's work.

7:30 – 9pm Comedorleans Hosted by Lucas Kavner this event will be a fun mix of the best sketch comedy groups in the city. $10 admission also gets you into the WET! party

9pm – 3am WET! all night dance party Dress to get wet… whether that means your best galoshes and slickers, yellow polka dot bikini, goggles or the color BLUE we hope you'll join us for an all night bash featuring Pat O'Brian's famous Hurricane Cocktails, drink specials, N'awlins Burlesque dancers and a great mix of DJS including ITP's cassettenova, Black and White's DJ Theo "Action" Lorraine, Eyebeam's Dj "dubs", and bringin the house down with Eddie Mars and the Vietcong Disco. $10 plus one free drink

November 23rd 8am FREE Yoga with Elizabeth Barnett for those of you at the after party Liz will offer a great Restorative Yoga session…yeah….see you at the finish line.

November 23rd 5pm and 8pm Dramatic Double Feature. You have two chances to see this double feature. Part one is the four top short plays written by New Orleans high school students in the Recovery Public School District commissioned by the Ogden Museum of Southern Folkart and performed by NYC theater companies The Talking Band, NY-Neo Classical Ensemble, The Movement Theater Company, and IRT. The students will view the staged readings via live webcam down in New Orleans. The second feature is performance artist Jennifer Pagan's Shoebox Lounge an admired performance artist and activist in New Orleans, Pagan is bringing her catchy show which last appeared in NYC at UCB to IRT. Pagan is a teacher and administrator with Young Audiences. $10

November 24th Michael "Rex" Dingler will do a workshop with Crown Heights First Achievement school second grade class. A class made up primarily of Afro-Caribbean students, many of whose families have been effected by recent hurricanes, they will partner with the NHP foundations Tanglewood Youth Center in New Orleans on a "Drawing" pal exchange.

November 25th NoLA Rising and SLIGHLTYaskew go to Southstreet Youth Center in Jamaica Plains Boston, MA. NoLA Rising will join members of SLIGHTLYaskew who have been working with the youth community in JP for the past two years in an art therapy workshop surrounding a recent shooting and killing of several children in the community. The students will get to share their thoughts and feelings through art and make work both in response and for their community.

Fred Radtke Caught Red-Handed in Double-Talk | Alleged Vandal Flip Flops on Destroying Famed Banksy Piece | WDSU Breaks Story

Fringe Fest - November 13-16th - XO Studios

The New Orleans Fringe Festival, November 13-16, will be an extraordinary convergence of theater, performance art and spectacle. Forty groups from around the country and New Orleans will be presenting over 120 shows in venues across the city, primarily in the Marigny, Bywater and French Quarter. The shows include the exotic, the dramatic and the insane: drama, dance, one-person shows, cabaret, comedy, puppetry, clowning, improvisational, aerialist and many other creative works.

This is just a taste: for the complete lineup of all shows visit www.nofringe.org/shows.html. Show descriptions and high-resolution versions of images are available by clicking on the show titles and images. Visit the press kit for high resolution images of the festival logo and our signature image of the shotgun porch aerialists: www.nofringe.org/news_presskit.html.

Venues include traditional theaters as well as unusual spaces: Marigny Theatre, the Sidearm Gallery, the Hi-Ho Lounge, the North Rampart Community Center, Nola Candle Factory, the Skull Club, Le Chat Noir, On Piety, Maw-Maw the Chicken Memorial Theatre, Voodoo Mystere Lounge, and others. All performances are $7 each and run between 30 and 60 minutes.

Tickets are available online at www.nofringe.org, at the door before each show, or at the Fringe Circus Tent during the festival. The Fringe Circus Tent is the heart of the Festival; it is an antique big-top where audience members and performers can mingle over refreshments, read audience reviews, and enjoy free entertainment; it will be located at the corner of Press and Dauphine Streets in the Marigny.

Other free Fringe activities during the Festival include the Goodchildren Social Aid and Pleasure Club Fringe Parade down St. Claude at 10 am on November 15th, and later that day an outdoor children’s stage with free performances of puppetry, slack rope walkers and aerialists, hosted by the St. Claude Main Street Project from 2-5 pm on Saturday, November 15th.

DJ Soul Sister Jams at One Eyed Jacks In Celebration of President Barack Obama

We were given the honor of providing some entertainment at the election party for Barack Obama thrown by our beloved friend DJ Soul Sister. Our sister threw one helluva party with many sponsors (Defend New Orleans among them) and like-minded friends. From Dirty Coast taking pictures of people with Barack cut-out to face-painting by Rex, a good time was had by all.

Enjoy the pictures from the DJ Soulsister's Victory Party:

Oh, we're good looking people

First Face of the Night

A Winning Smile!

Rex Paints a Shephard Fairey

Andrew Ward sports a post-modern Shephard Fairey

When people ask why I'm an artist, it's easy to say because I get to look into eyes like these

Avi and DJ Soul Sister

NoLA Rising NYC Launched

NoLA Rising NYC, the website detailing the NoLA Rising Festival at IRT in New York was launched this past week:

The main exhibit, A Tag of Two Cities, will include Dingler's original work, collaborations between Dingler and New York street artists, and art painted in New York City parks during the NoLA Rising paint parties. The festival includes a 24-hour art happening - with DJ's, live music and arts exhibitions - and a benefit on Saturday, November 22nd, featuring special appearances, performances and donations from New York artists. Proceeds from the benfefit will go to NoLA Rising and Young Audiences, an organization that provides art supplies and funds teacher salaries in public schools that have gone without art classes since Katrina. All participants in the festival hope to promote public art as a vital aspect of healthy communities, to encourage support for art therapy programs and to challenge traditional perspectives on street art.

See NoLA Rising NYC HERE

NoLA Rising at Prospect Everyone

Prospect EveryOne - The New Orleans Opening for Prospect 1

On Thursday, October 30th, NoLA Rising joined the team of New Orleans all stars on Julia Street for the locals opening of Prospect One. NoLA Rising opted to provide the entertainment of an art jail where you could have your friends thrown in jail for a small fee. Once inside the jail you had to work hard labor making artwork until you could convince someone to come and bail you out. A good time was had by all...enjoy the pictures of our madness:

Jess and Jen Patrol the streets

Immunity for no one

NoLA Rising

I eat a lot of donuts to look this good

The first prisoner of the evening

---And a very special thanks to everyone who helped make this night happen: Avi, Angela, Max, Mags, Travis, Jess, Denise, Varg, Jenn, Romy, & Alicia---